Apr 19, 2016 - Sale 2411

Sale 2411 - Lot 260

Price Realized: $ 1,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(MARATHON DANCING)
Thick 154-page scrapbook compiled by Broadway actor and dancer Jimmie Scott, containing more than 100 theatrical and dance pictures.
Images include world champion couples and hundreds of ephemeral items, including autographs, sheet music, programs, contracts, government letters, and newspaper clippings pertaining to Scott's career and endurance tournaments at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. With 125 autographed photographs of the individual contest dancers and 31 large-format dance prints. Silver prints, sizing ranging from 2 1/4x1 1/4 to 8 1/2x13 1/4 inches (5.7x3.2 to 21x33.7 cm.), including one by Kelty. Folio-size twin-bolt binding with turquoise vinyl over boards, worn. 1914-35
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Additional Details

A rare social artifact documenting a dance craze that swept the public's imagination in the late 1920s--endurance or marathon dancing. Young, sleep-deprived couples participated in dance derbies, some lasting as much a 482 hours (20 days), throughout the country. Apparently, Scott was often a winner. Included is a letter from the NYC Heath Department demanding that Scott cease and desist with the event, with an image of the contestants' arrest. Also with Scott's WWI military snaps, early stage reviews, and photographs from his stage hits Gertie (1927) and Mr. Gilhooley (1927).


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